Southeast coach Lawrence Thomas wasn’t pleased with the decision-making on the court.

“No excuses. You must take care of the ball,” Thomas said. “What they did in the second half, we knew they were going to do it. We practiced against it. We just didn’t execute. You’ve got to take care of the ball.

“If you at least get up a shot, you’ve got a 50/50 chance of making it.”

Seven of the eight rotation players for Lanphier had steals, including Yaakema Rose’s team-high six swipes.

Two of Southeast’s main ball handlers combined for 16 turnovers in the game.

Game of runs

In the first half, Lanphier came out as the aggressors, but Southeast would not be intimidated.

The Lions came away with 12 first-half steals as the Spartans turned the ball over 17 times.

What helped kept Southeast in the game — besides Jalen Henry’s eight rebounds and three blocks — was its shooting.

The Spartans made 11 of 19 shots, including a 4-for-8 clip from the 3-point line, to shoot 57.9 percent for the half.

Over the same period, Lanphier struggled to make a quarter of its shots, shooting 10-for-38 (26.3 percent).

But every time the Lions would make a push and threaten to widen its gap, the Spartans responded.

Lanphier went up 11-5 with less than two minutes left in the first quarter, but Favian Bevely and B.J. Hill came up with baskets for Southeast to end the quarter trailing 11-10.

Hill had 10 of his 15 points in the first half.

“B.J. Hill hit some huge shots for them,” Turner said. “It’s a game of runs; you have to sustain runs. We knew they were going to go on a run. I knew we had some runs in us, too.”

The Lions would keep pushing early in the second, but each time Southeast would respond.

After Bishop’s 3-pointer with 5 minutes 21 seconds left in the half hit to give Lanphier a 20-17 lead, the Spartans went on a 16-2 run to take a 33-22 lead with 1:00 left.

It was the largest lead of the half.

Austin and Bishop combined for five points in the final minute to cut the deficit to within a manageable 33-27 score.